1. Technical Field
The invention relates to apparatus and methods for processing poultry and in particular to an apparatus and method for disjointing the legs of poultry. More particularly, the invention relates to such an apparatus and method for automatically disjointing the thighbones of chicken carcasses at the proximal end of the bones.
2. Background Information
Heretofore, most chicken processing plants exclusively have used laborers to manually pop or disjoint the thighbones of chicken carcasses in order to meet the individual needs of certain of their customers. More particularly, fast-food carryout restaurants want the thighbones of the chickens, which they purchase for subsequent preparation and sale to consumers, disjointed or popped out of their sockets at the proximal end of the bone. Failure to do so results in uneven cooking of the thigh meat caused by blood pooling in the thighbone socket. These fast-food restaurants require that the thigh-popping operation be carried out at the processing plant since they compete for business in labor-intensive industries, where allotting labor for disjointing the thighbones of chickens after they are received from a processing plant is economically inefficient.
In order to effectively meet such demands, it has become necessary for certain chicken processing plants to increase automation and reduce labor costs. Thus, the only known previous method of disjointing chicken legs, that is manual labor, is unfeasible in today's competitive market. The unfeasibility of this method is due to its labor-intensive nature, and more specifically because it is an operation that requires extra personnel, is very time consuming and tiring for such personnel to perform, and therefore yields unefficient results.
Thus, the need exists for an apparatus and method for automatically disjointing the thighbones of chicken carcasses at the proximal end of the bones during the usual automated processing of the chickens without interfering with other processing operations.